Paper Reading Desk

Build a personal research library with PDFs, images, photos and document scans. Paper Reading Desk keeps originals and notes on your device, extracts text locally, and suggests keywords and theories you can edit or leave blank.

• Read original documents beside your notes in a wide iPad window; switch views in a narrow window. • Review a rule-based reading breakdown of purpose, sample, methods, findings and limitations, with source-page links when page information is available. • Choose a supported translation language and compare each translated paragraph with its source. • Write your own notes and edit keywords, theories, tags and bibliographic details. • Search extracted text and notes, copy APA/MLA/BibTeX/RIS citations, and optionally retrieve metadata by DOI. • Export a full library backup, or a separate portable copy of your notes and bibliography.

No account, AI account or API key is required; reading, organizing and the breakdown run on the device. This version has no cloud AI analysis or in-app purchases.

In-app paragraph translation requires iOS/iPadOS 18 or later; 17.4–17.x uses the system translation panel and 17.0–17.3 does not offer translation. The native Mac app requires macOS 15.5 or later. Language availability depends on the device and OS, and the first language download needs internet access. Scanned-PDF OCR covers up to the first 32 pages while preserving the complete original. Translation and the breakdown are reading aids: check the source before quoting. Full backups use .paperbackup. Notes JSON excludes originals and is not a restorable full backup. Restore adds new papers only and is not cross-device synchronization. Exported files are not encrypted; keep them secure.

Choose from 21 interface languages, including Traditional and Simplified Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Hindi; Arabic and Urdu use a right-to-left layout. English papers can be translated into many languages on supported devices.

Support: https://firesparkle.com/app/paper-reading-desk/support/ Privacy: https://firesparkle.com/app/paper-reading-desk/privacy/